What do you Tell Someone Who Doesn't Believe Mental Illnesses Exist?

stephera · Jan 8, 2006

I am not saying that there are no psych problems out there but I do believe that drug induced schitzophrenia is nothing but pure evil, the devil.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jan 8, 2006

My stepmom thought that people could just snap out of it. I told here that if peopel were able to do this, they would have already.

grannynurse FNP student · Jan 8, 2006

Darn someone beat me to the Tommie comment:chuckle

Grannynurse:balloons:

LydiaNN · Jan 8, 2006

I am not saying that there are no psych problems out there but I do believe that drug induced schitzophrenia is nothing but pure evil, the devil.

If you believe that it is drug induced (btw, although schizophrenics do sometimes become drug addicts its origins have nothing to do with drug use), why are you blaming the devil instead of the drugs? I don't follow your logic at all.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jan 8, 2006

Well, all I believe is with schitzophrenia is that it is pure evil, nothing but the devil. I mostly believe this for ones who are drug attics. I am not saying there is no psych problems though.

Addicts?

In my experience, people were born with it, and i've also noticed an inherited trend. Drugs had nothing to do with how they have it.

steelcityrn, RN · Jan 8, 2006

Is this a joke?????

steelcityrn, RN · Jan 8, 2006

Is this another Tom Cruise follower?

Whispera, MSN, RN · Jan 9, 2006

ahem...I think I'll rest my case....

danu3 · Jan 9, 2006

Perhaps you psych nurses don't encounter many of these types of people, but I've been debating one recently. He believes that since the autopsy of the brain won't prove the deceased had bi-polar, ADHD, SAD, or any other mental illness, they don't exist. He thinks people just claim to have mental illnesses due to pride and mis-information, and that all they need is a little counseling (perferably from a "religious leader") and they'll see the error of their life of lies. Suggestions anyone?

I don't think you can convince people like that. You can show them evidence till you are blue in the face, they will always have another interpretation.

Serious mental illness is a scary thing. It is very comforting to know that all they need is a little counseling from a religous leader and the person is healed when they see the errors of their lies. It is comforting because it does not apply to me or my love ones as we are good people.

Another thing is, this person most likely have not really interact with people who are suffering from a serious mental illness for any length of time. They don't have to live with a love one 24/7 with a serious mental illness and worrying about things like are they going to just disappear, are they going to do something wild and ended up hurting themselves or others... They don't see the helplessness of families watching their love ones just deteriate in front of their eyes and there are nothing they could do until it is lots of time too late. They don't see the frustration of police officers, nurses, doctors, social workers who have their hands tied legally so they can't do much to help in many instances until it is just horrible.

People like these tends to be very judgemental... not very compassionate... tends to overgeneralize things... think they are expert in areas they do not know anything about... self-righteous(sp)...

If they really want information, you can go to sites like http://www.schizophrenia.com and look at lots of the research. This site also have a very good news area which you can keep up (recently there are tons of news in terms of genetics). Take a look at

http://www.schizophrenia.com/schizpictures.html, you get some interesting pictures.

Take a look also at http://www.schizophreniaforum.org/ .

People like that also get their information from antipsychiatric groups (I am not talking about Scientology) which are small but very vocal and a bit dogmatic (also they don't really understand the scientific process).

You may ask the person what s/he has done to look at the evidence for schizophrenia (be specific down to an illness)? If not, encourage them to investigate it themselves. Complement on them being critical. Now to be fair, you want to be critical on both side... if they are going to convince you, they better show that they understand schizophrenia, all the common research that are done and so on. Usually they have no idea and think schizophrenia is the same as psychosis which is not true.

This question is also an interesting one from a medical anthropological view as different culutures do have different ideas. As nurses, how do we translate between the cultures is an interesting question.

As for the "just a little counseling" comment, there really is nothing you can do unless you yourself have personally seen what the right meds can do to a person with severe schizophrenia. I personally seen it many times and to this day it still amazes me how a person would eventually change back to close to where they were before. Unfortunately, this does not happen all the time. The point is, if meds can do this... then it indirectly implies that it is something wrong with the chemistry of the brain, not some moral kind of thing. If the person is "evil", there are not going to be any meds that can make the "evil" person "good".

Another point you might want to bring up for reflection... if every part of our body can go wrong... why can't our brain? I mean... our brain is the most complex organ... why can't the chemistry in the brain get messed up?

About the autopsy comment... with schizophrenia... lots of people actually do have a significant larger ventricles and you can see that with autopsy (in the old days before all the current fancy brain imaging technology). Also if it has something to do some too much or too little neurotransmitters between neurons... how in the world is one going to see it when the person is dead? You have to see it when the person is alive.

Like other posters already mentioned... don't waste your time unless the person is one of your love ones who is suffering from a serioius mental illness and s/he is reading the antipsychiatry literature.

danu3 · Jan 9, 2006

Well, all I believe is with schitzophrenia is that it is pure evil, nothing but the devil. I mostly believe this for ones who are drug attics. I am not saying there is no psych problems though.

Like the other posters said... is this a joke? I hope you are not a nurse.

That is your choice to believe that schizophrenia is of the devil. I just didn't know the medication we have are so powerful these days that it can drive the devil out of a person with schizophrenia given I personally know more than one person with schizophrenia who has the right meds and there is no way you can tell they have this illness unless they tell you. Maybe the devil is getting weak in his old age...

Thunderwolf, MSN, RN · Jan 9, 2006

As a former psych nurse of 10 years, let me say quite easily that psychiatric illnesses are very real, not imagined, and cause much suffering to those who have them. Folks who do not believe that they exist really do not have any credibility in my book. Folks choosing to be mentally or emotionally ill?....plain hogwash. Why would so many people choose to suffer in this manner?...and they do suffer!...and it is suffering...it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to believe otherwise. It is plain ignorance from the lack of information or just plain stubbornness and/or both by these naysayers...nothing more. If you run across a naysayer who adamantly proclaims that these illnesses do no exist, shake your head, turn around, and walk away. People DO CHOOSE, however, to be educated about the reality of this type of illness or to remain in their ignorance. If they choose ignorance, God help them. Walk away...you can't help them...not until they crash and burn from their own illness one day (good possibility) which will make believers out of them...seen it happen.

Jerico, BSN, RN · Jan 9, 2006

Reminds me of people who tell a sexually abused person to "just get over it"!

:crying2: